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The Georgia couple is described as "sweet as can be," and authorities are scrambling to unravel the mystery of how Russell Dermond, 88, was killed and then reportedly decapitated, and his 87-year-old wife disappeared. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office is treating Shirley Dermond's disappearance from the Eatonton home -- where her husband was found dead Tuesday -- as an abduction, Sheriff Howard Sills said in a statement. Police suspect that Russell Dermond was killed between Friday and Sunday. The Dermonds' friends hadn't heard from them in days and went to their home in the upscale, gated, lakeside Great Waters community,...

NORCROSS, Ga. – Police are searching for a man who used a pitchfork to rob a Waffle House restaurant northeast of Atlanta. Norcross police say 50-year-old Jeffery Wooten entered the diner in Norcross, Georgia, Thursday night and forced people toward a back room. He then grabbed the cash register. WSB-TV reports that the suspect dropped the pitchfork while carrying that cash register back to his truck. Two restaurant workers followed the robber outside, grabbed the abandoned pitchfork and used it to smash a window on the robber's truck as he escaped, possibly injuring the suspect.

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

Georgia's "Safe Carry Protection Act" -- or as critics call it, the "Guns Everywhere Bill" -- sparked controversy nationwide. "Gets me worried though, walking into a bar where people have been drinking and a couple of guys are packing a Colt .45," Fox News anchor Stuart Varney said on his program last week. For Oregon gun rights advocates, the question is: What's new about that? "The changes they've made in Georgia law bring them very close to what we have in Oregon," Kevin Starrett of the gun rights group Oregon's Firearm Federation said Tuesday. "License-holders are free to carry their...

A 19-year-old baggage handler, who was armed ‘like Rambo,’ opened fire on his co-workers at a FedEx facility in Kennesaw early this morning, injuring six people, before killing himself. The gunman has been identified as Geddy Kramer. Cobb County police say the man walked into the FedEx warehouse on Airport Road and opened fire. Six men and women between the ages of 19 and 52 were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where one of them remains in critical condition. Geddy is reportedly a 2013 graduate of North Cobb High School.

Have we gone stark raving mad? The question is brought to mind by the gun law signed last week in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal. You might have thought that since the United States couldn’t possibly have more permissive firearms laws than it does now, nothing more could be done to coddle the gun lobby and tip the balance of our statutes away from law enforcement. Alas, you would be wrong. -snip- Oh yes, and while conservatives claim to hate the centralization of power, this law wipes out a series of local gun regulations. The gun supremacists just don’t trust...

KENNESAW, Ga. — Police say two people are in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at a FedEx station outside Atlanta, injuring six people in all. Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce also says the suspected gunman worked for FedEx as a package handler. He was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound about an hour after someone called 911 early Tuesday. One employee of the package sorting facility in Kennesaw north of Atlanta said the gunman had an assault rifle, a knife and bullets strapped across his chest "like Rambo." The gunman's identity has not been released.

Savannah, GA CBS affiliate WTOC reported Friday that Chatham County, GA is cutting back on hours due to ObamaCare....

...'forced him into a dog cage and poured syrup and kitty litter over him' A six-year-old boy whose mother forced him into a dog cage then poured syrup and kitty litter on him was rescued after neighbors heard him screaming, 'Do you love me?' to his abuser, authorities said. The boy's mother, Crystal Jean Hostetter, 24, and her long-term girlfriend, Sarah Elizabeth McClain, 30, allegedly abused the boy - who has psychological issues and does not like sticky substances - for two hours on Saturday. Neighbors witnessed the treatment and alerted authorities. The two women, from Douglasville, Georgia, appeared in...

To many Democrats, ObamaCare is a four-letter word. Most Democrats in competitive elections are seeking to avoid the topic, opting not to tout the controversial law on their campaign websites. In a review of battleground races, The Hill found that out of 50 Democratic candidates with active campaign websites, only 11 mention the healthcare law by name, either as "ObamaCare," "Affordable Care Act," or "ACA." Fourteen more mention the law, but not its name, and half the candidates omit it entirely from their websites. President Obama has trumpeted that more than 8 million people have enrolled in ACA-related plans. Meanwhile,...

Murray County Deputy Greg Morrison put his arm around the FULL TITLE: Officer has face mauled by police K9 when he tried to take selfie with it AA Georgia deputy sheriff was rushed to the hospital Monday after a police bit his face, ripping open his chin and lip. Murray County Deputy Greg Morrison put his arm around the Malinois after a job well done in an attempt to take a selfie with his cell phone. But the professional pup was in no mood for camaraderie and proved it with a vicious snap at Morrison's chin. 'It’s an act of...

<p>A Marin County technology executive was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he got off his bicycle and beat a motorist unconscious during an alleged act of road rage in Mill Valley, a city police official said.</p>

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed into law Wednesday a pro-gun package that groups on both sides of the gun control debate describe as exceptional. The National Rifle Association calls it ”the most comprehensive pro-gun bill in state history.” Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun control group founded by shooting victim and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), calls it ”the most extreme gun bill in America.”

This week marks the 44th anniversary of Earth Day. In years past, the day has been marked with great media fanfare and attention. This week, it marched by with little mention. This is not so much a reflection of any lack of interest in the Earth, but a reflection of how mainstream and ongoing the topics of recycling, reclaiming and sustainability have become. They are now part of our daily lives, rather than a topic to be raised once a year. For the first Earth Day, in 1970, the Keep America Beautiful organization ran a commercial that portrayed what...

ATLANTA – Its official name is the “Safe Carry Protection Act.” But critics are calling it the “Guns Everywhere Bill.” At noon Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is scheduled to sign the sweeping legislation into law. One of the most permissive state gun laws in the nation, it will allow licensed owners to carry firearms into more public places than at any time in the past century, including churches, bars and government buildings that don't have security checkpoints. The law also authorizes school districts to appoint staffers to carry firearms. It allows churches to "opt-in" if they want to allow...

An Atlanta kidnapping crew scheming to nab a North Carolina prosecutor went to the wrong address and, instead, grabbed the attorney’s father, authorities said. Prosecutors said a hired crew was contracted to snatch his daughter, Wake County, N.C., Assistant District Attorney Colleen Janssen, at the behest of a man she had put in prison for life. Twice, apparent bungling led the cohorts to the wrong place, according to the indictment obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In March, an Internet search led the alleged conspirators to an address for the North Carolina prosecutor … in Louisiana. So an armed team rented...

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to sign legislation Wednesday expanding gun rights in the state. The bill, described by the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm as "the most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent state history," expands the scope of public places where licensed owners are allowed to carry firearms. The bill makes several changes to state law. It allows those with a license to carry to bring a gun into a bar without restriction and into some government buildings that don't have certain security measures. It also allows religious leaders to decide whether it's OK for a...

A school district asked the police to prohibit certain students from setting foot on school property because their parents had privacy concerns about Common Core-aligned standardized testing, and wished to opt their kids out.The incident happened at Marietta City Schools in Marietta, Georgia. The Finney family didn’t want their three children — in third grade, fifth grade and ninth grade — to participate in the state-mandated Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, partly because of the vast amounts of data the government is collecting about their children, and partly because they think the tests don’t serve a compelling educational interest, according to The...

The grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who is running for governor in Georgia, suggested Monday that if he wins the gubernatorial race he will not stop the state from issuing license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag. During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown,” state Sen. Jason Carter, a Democrat, said people have the right to sport the Sons of Confederate Veterans-backed license plate, which features an image of the Confederate flag. He also said he would rather have people focus their attention on the role that Georgia and its leaders played in the civil rights movement.

From the first Morning Jolt of the week: Whoops: Half of Georgia’s Insurance Enrollees Haven’t Paid Yet. This seems rather important: Georgia insurers received more than 220,000 applications for health coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchange as of the official federal deadline of March 31, state officials said Wednesday. Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, though, said premiums have been received for only 107,581 of those policies, which cover 149,465 people. “Many Georgians completed the application process by the deadline, but have yet to pay for the coverage,” Hudgens said in a statement Wednesday. Half? Half? Sure, the nonpayment rates will...